A month of summer fun

Once again I've been away from the blogging for a little longer than planned. I blame it on summer fun getting in the way of computer evenings. July started with a two week trip to BC to visit with family. We had great fun and managed to get some visiting in with pretty much everyone in both our families.

During this trip we did our first camping for the season and it worked out really well with the kids. They loved doing all the camping things like roasting marshmallows on the fire and sleeping in the tent.We had both boys in sleeping bags on their own mats this year and although it took quite a while to settle down, they actually slept!

We camped again last weekend with some friends and had more success so we feel brave now and are ready for more camping adventures.

Talking with other parents of toddlers and preschoolers, I hear mixed reviews about camping. Sleep is the main issue - as it is for all holidaying at this stage.

I am typically quite regimented when it comes to my kids' sleeping habits. I enforce an early bedtime at home because I need down time in the evenings and because I find we all do better during the day this way. I seem to have a hard time relaxing about this when we're away (even though I am such an easygoing person! ha). This year I was determined to go with the flow, let things slide and just see how the evenings unfolded. It really did help for a more fun experience. The kids stayed up quite a bit later than usual, but they did go to sleep eventually and even rewarded my laissez-faire camping attitude by sleeping in a little later than normal and generally behaving during the waking hours. So I have decided to fully embrace this new relaxed style - bring on the camping fun!

Here are a few summer pics for your enjoyment.